Land tenure in the Empire

The Empire is the Empire in the
Reincarnation Cycle,
an interactive fiction in which participants move through a multitude of lives in a
great circle of time. The focus of the Cycle are the personal lives of the personae
and the decisions that they make; the background is there as a setting for the stories.
Like many hydraulic civilizations, the structure of the Empire is critically affected
by land tenure and inheritance rules.

In the Empire title to all land belongs to the Imperium. As usual in such situations
all is not as it is purported to be. The administration of agricultural lands is
either managed directly by the civil service or is delegated to the landed nobility.
The right of administration can either be for a fixed period or (more commonly) in
perpetuity. Land administration rights are heritable with the permission; they cannot
be bought or sold. If a rights holder cannot administer their lands properly the
right of administration escheats to the Imperium. Nobles collect rents from the
peasantry and pay taxes directly to the Imperium.

The duties of land administration include maintaining order among the peasantry
working the land, constructing and maintaining the relevant public works such as
water ways and roads, ensuring transport of goods and produce into and out of the
lands, and ensuring that all proper rituals and ceremonies are performed. The
benefits of land administration include the collecting of taxes and (for the nobility)
place and position.

In lands administered by the Imperium the actual administration is performed by
the civil service. The situation in lands administered by the nobility is more
complicated. The lands of the petty nobility are small enough so that the noble
can manage his lands by himself or with the aid of an agent. Nobles managing
larger lands either make do a staff of their own or else contract out the actual
administration to companies that specialize in land administration. The availability
and competence of these companies varies widely. They frequently are less than
scrupulous.

The actual work of constructing public works, e.g., water ways, dams, roads, and
public buildings, is performed by the labor conscripts. The peasantry pays its
rents/taxes in two ways, with labor and with produce. In addition to the conscripted
peasantry there are labor camps that are filled with people convicted of various
crimes. Conditions in the labor camps are harsh. The Empire does not waste money
on long term imprisonment; criminals are regarded as a resource to be used and thrown
away. The conscripted peasantry are treated rather better - they are an ongoing
resource and are sheared rather than butchered.

The nobility is not supposed to maintain labor camps. However the natural tendency
of the nobility is to extend its authority and control. In troubled times the
power of the Imperium is weak and much happens that supposedly is not permitted.
In bad times war lords and bandits establish themselves as nobles and thumb their
noses at the Empire.

The peasantry is divided into villages. Each village is a cooperative; villagers
do not own land as such. The village lands are divides into common lands and garden
plots - each villager gets their own garden plot. Villages have a standard social
structure. There is a village chief, a priest, a few artisans (e.g., a blacksmith),
and many peasants. Although most of the work is communal there is a small services
and money economy. There are strong social pressures to work hard for the community.
More than that, trouble makers and slackers can be kicked out.

Evicted peasantry have a few choices. They can turn to banditry, they can move to
a city, they can move to another village, or they can appeal to the Office of the
Landless Ones. This is an Imperial service
provided for those who are not part of a village and wish to become
part of one. At any particular time there will be villages with a population
surplus or shortage so there is always a certain amount of movement going on.
Most of the movement is informal; people go to another village and try to be
accepted there. Moving to a city can be rewarding but there are many pitfalls.
Banditry can be rewarding but often leads to the loss of one's head.

Villages exist in perpetuity; the land administrators have no right to evict
them. However perpetuity can end if the village is no longer viable. Ways
this can happen include being a victim of plague, being decimated by barbarians or civil
war, being abandoned because of drought and crop failure, being cursed,
and natural disasters
such as flood.

The village system is used in agricultural production. The majority of villages
produce staple crops such as rice and wheat. They are essentially self sufficient
except for manufactured goods. They have have garden areas
and some domestic animals, e.g., pigs, chickens, oxen, cats, and dogs. They may
have some fruit and nut trees, and possibly a fish pond. The village economy is
mostly a produce and barter economy with little money changing hands.

However there are also villages that raise plantation crops, e.g., orchards and
vinyards, that are not staple crops. Plantation crop villages have a money economy;
villagers get piece work wages from the village cooperative and a share of the village
profits. In turn they purchase food and other staples from outside the village. There
are major variations in the profitability and extent of the plantation crop system,
depending upon the economic health of the Empire.